The Times of India: Gurgaon: Monday, April 09, 2012.
The city continues to lack a comprehensive street surveillance cover but the few CCTV cameras that are in place might also be of little use. It was revealed in an RTI reply recently that the city has no real policy governing the operation of CCTVs - which means no directions are in place as to how long a CCTV footage is to be retained on the official servers should the need arise to review past recordings.
In separate responses filed by various branches of Haryana police and officials of the district court in Gurgaon, it was revealed that there are no prescribed norms, which is a clear security handicap considering that most private firms have a 6-month policy for retaining all recorded footage.
"CCTV footage is crucial for investigation but in the absence of any clear-cut policy on this, especially on the matter of storing the recordings, the whole enterprise becomes pointless," said Aseem Takyar, a Gurgaon based RTI activist who filed the application. When asked, the public information officer representing the Gurgaon police responded, "Any policy/norms with relation to CCTV cameras are not available in the records of this department." Similar replies were sent in by the Haryana police's central offices in Rohtak and Narnaul.
Gurgaon's district court premises, which already lack a sufficient number of CCTV cameras, also replied in the same vein to the RTI application, adding that the surveillance systems are managed by the Public Works Department of Gurgaon. "The CCTV cameras, in the district court premises were installed by the PWD. No official here at the court is trained in operating/preparing the floppy/diskette of the recording of CCTV camera. Even, this office does not know as to whether facility of preparation of floppy/diskette is available," went the response.
In the coming year, close to Rs 59 crore might be spent on an ambitious outdoor surveillance scheme of the Gurgaon police. That is if the plan goes through. The plan was first unveiled in May 2008, and not much has been done yet to implement it. A senior police official said that the whole scheme would be operational by June this year, but in the absence of official guidelines, it remains to be seen how effective the new surveillance plan turns out to be.
In separate responses filed by various branches of Haryana police and officials of the district court in Gurgaon, it was revealed that there are no prescribed norms, which is a clear security handicap considering that most private firms have a 6-month policy for retaining all recorded footage.
"CCTV footage is crucial for investigation but in the absence of any clear-cut policy on this, especially on the matter of storing the recordings, the whole enterprise becomes pointless," said Aseem Takyar, a Gurgaon based RTI activist who filed the application. When asked, the public information officer representing the Gurgaon police responded, "Any policy/norms with relation to CCTV cameras are not available in the records of this department." Similar replies were sent in by the Haryana police's central offices in Rohtak and Narnaul.
Gurgaon's district court premises, which already lack a sufficient number of CCTV cameras, also replied in the same vein to the RTI application, adding that the surveillance systems are managed by the Public Works Department of Gurgaon. "The CCTV cameras, in the district court premises were installed by the PWD. No official here at the court is trained in operating/preparing the floppy/diskette of the recording of CCTV camera. Even, this office does not know as to whether facility of preparation of floppy/diskette is available," went the response.
In the coming year, close to Rs 59 crore might be spent on an ambitious outdoor surveillance scheme of the Gurgaon police. That is if the plan goes through. The plan was first unveiled in May 2008, and not much has been done yet to implement it. A senior police official said that the whole scheme would be operational by June this year, but in the absence of official guidelines, it remains to be seen how effective the new surveillance plan turns out to be.
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